I’ve been fighting various ergonomic issues with weaving on the TC-2, which Mike has neatly solved for me by putting a pair of switches on the beater, like so:
Because the activation levers on both switches are small, Mike epoxied them to small wooden paddles. The switches are attached to spring clamps, which are clamped around the top of the beater. There is a thin sheet of rubber (bicycle inner tube) between clamps and beater, both to help the clamp stay in place and to protect the beater from abrasion.
These switches are ingenious in that they require no additional motion on the part of the weaver. They require very little pressure to activate – a nudge is quite sufficient – so I can activate them simply by putting my hand on the beater and grazing the wooden paddle with the side of my thumb or index finger.
Here’s a video of the switches in action:
I can’t wait to use them on a real piece! I’ve really been struggling with ergonomics of the pedal that comes with the TC-2. Repeatedly activating the pedal with my foot gave me hip bursitis, so I mounted the pedal on the castle of the loom. That worked, but resulted in shoulder issues until I lowered the pedal to below shoulder height. Even then, activating the pedal felt awkward and disrupted my rhythm. These switches should be far more comfortable, and allow me to weave faster and with more control than I could get with the foot pedal.
Kudos to Mike for designing and making these switches for me! Best weaving tool ever.
Now this is the best in ergonomic design a person could ever wish to have, how cool is that! It would seen that feedback to the TC-2 folks is in order as well; there’s no reason to keep painful design.
It was very fun to see your samples at guild last week.
We all need a resident Mike in our studios! Kudos, Mike, for the great design. Patent it so you can sell the patent to Digital Weaving Norway.
FYI for anyone who is interested:
Clips: McMaster-Carr 17185A51
Switches: Omron D3V-62-1A4 (Digikey Z4952-ND, previously was D3V-62-1A4-ND
Cable: I have to check when I get home, I think it’s a 2.5mm ID, 5.5mm OD right angle plug with a 6 foot lead. Tensility 10-01066 (Digikey 839-1166-ND but I’m sure other electronics dealers have similar.
Switch levers roughed up with sandpaper and cleaned to improve glue bonding, strips of wood shaped to clear the clips, new holes drilled in the clips to match the hole pattern of the screws. Wood glued to levers with JB Weld epoxy or similar (clamp gently overnight and protect the switch body from any squeeze-out with tape) , switches screwed in place with M3 screws, flat washer, nuts. NO and Common contacts of one switch connected to leads to loom, then joined to NO and Common contacts of the other switch. Would be neater to use crimp-on lugs, I just soldered it.
Inner-tube rubber to mount firmly. Be careful not to put much pressure on the lever, grab it by the clip when moving it around.